Tiger Woods has not played tournament golf since August and has since undergone a third back operation
Photograph: Russell Cheyne/Reuters

Tiger Woods has provided an online riposte to tales of his physical demise by posting a video which shows him playing a shot on a golf simulator. The post is a clear indication that the Woods camp are in upbeat mood about whether he will be able to continue his career.

Tiger Woods takes first step towards life after tournament competition

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Rumours this week suggested the 14-times major winner, who is recovering from a third back surgery, still cannot play golf and was in such discomfort that he cannot even sit upright in a car.

Days earlier, Woods’s advisers had been silent when contacted for an update on his condition but on this occasion his management team instantly hit back at what they labelled “reprehensible” stories. Nevertheless there remains no report on precisely when the 40-year-old will return to competitive golf. He last featured in August at the Wyndham Championship amid constant struggles with fitness and form.

Intrigue surrounds whether he could possibly make a playing return at the Masters, which is now little over a month away.

Phil Mickelson, meanwhile, not a man Woods would ever class as a close friend, has insisted golf remains “decades away” from anyone in the golfing class of today from reaching his old rival’s status.

Woods and Mickelson were known for mutual indifference off the course; that aspect has, it must be noted, thawed in recent times. Mickelson has now provided high praise and comparison of just how great Woods at his best was.

“There is nobody in the game of golf that I have seen that is remotely close to the level of performance Tiger was in his prime,” Mickelson told golf.com. “Mentally, short game or ball-striking, I don’t think anybody matches him in any of those areas. And Tiger put them all together in one to create a career that is mind-boggling.

“It’s difficult for me to see the game of golf returning to the level that it was during his heyday without somebody like that. And as great as the young players are, the level that I’ve seen out of him, especially when you go back to 2000 at the US Open and his performance when he held all four major championships at once, I think we’re decades away from anybody getting back to that level.”

Mickelson, 45, who won the last of his five majors, the Open Championship, in 2013 turned mischievous when asked if Jordan Spieth, Rory McIlroy, Jason Day or Rickie Fowler could match Woods’s major haul. “Possibly one, yes,” Mickelson said with a smile. “Which one? I’m not going to say that. That’s quite a little tease for you.”